


Picking Petunias

by Danesincry



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Akechi Goro Lives, Akechi actually likes Akira a lot, Akechi doesn't realise who Akira is until Okumura's palace, Akira has a Palace, Gay Kurusu Akira, Goro Akechi POV, He just never truly mentions it at first (as of when I am writing the first two or three chapters), M/M, Short Chapters, Written at 1am, gay boys that can't emotion correctly
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-17
Updated: 2018-09-17
Packaged: 2019-07-13 10:59:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,265
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16016522
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Danesincry/pseuds/Danesincry
Summary: Akechi had never watched a palace appear in front of him in the whole two years he had been in the Metaverse. It was a sight to see.It takes him a while to actually get past the first part, and he has no idea who the palace belongs to. But he meets Akira Kurusu and everything in his life feels lighter. He feels like he can talk to Akira. He doesn't have much time for the mystery palace, but suddenly when he goes back in, he can get deep enough to find out who the palace belongs to.The one and only Akira Kurusu is sitting in his cell wallowing and silent. The world has abused him into feeling like he deserves to be in jail, that he's nothing, that no one can save him. It affected him so much that it made him a palace, a prison, where he thinks he will die in. Akechi can hear the harmful whispering coming from the other empty cells. He's going mad in his own head and he doesn't know how long he'll take it anymore.Akechi has to get help of the other Phantom Thieves without Akira knowing and fixing him before he truly shuts down. Will they be successful on saving their leader?





	Picking Petunias

**Author's Note:**

> Running off of a prompt I read at work. I rewrote chapter one about eight times and I still hate it.

Akechi had never witnessed a palace appear in front of him until now. 

It built itself in a flourish of golden light, building itself up quickly. Akechi could briefly see a figure in the middle of the flurry. And with the final bricks placed, it was created. From the outside, it looked dull and like it was made of gray brick. The energy that the palace had given off was odd. It felt almost self inflicted and like it held more power than others.

Akechi felt like he was in awe as he approached the palace. He could see guards outside the main entrance, which lead into the main part of the city. Was whoever owned this palace seeing it as a prison? It definitely looked like a prison to Akechi.

Akechi gripped his gun, which sat in his pocket, and walked up to the palace’s front doors. He hoped that the guards wouldn’t see him automatically. He approached slowly and didn’t see any shadows guarding the door so he walked in slowly. The inside of the palace seemed to have an ombre effect on the walls as he went further into the palace. It started as grey and the more he went in, it slowly got more blue. He noticed his clothing was his normal outfit. He wasn’t seen as a threat, so maybe this palace belonged to someone that didn’t know him?

As Akechi moved passed cells, he noticed each was labeled with a number followed by the letter E. The cells were also all empty.

“Halt!” A shadow cried out from behind him and he turned to see a man who looked like a prison guard. “Do you have authorisation to go into Block D? Block E is all that visitors have access to. Safety precaution so no one accidently reaches the Prisoner and provoke him. We don’t know how he will react. He can be rather violent. He assaulted someone and ended up here.”

Akechi hesitated before smiling at the guard. He doubted that was actually how the boy got in here. “Ah, I’m sorry. I didn’t realize I didn’t have proper clearance. But if I may ask, how do I get access? May I know his name?”

“The Prisoner? Well, boss told us to not say anything… but at the same time there’s no harm…” The shadow frowned, his soulless black eyes looking off as he rubbed his chin. “You would have to know him personally, or get special permission. But we all know what you do, so I doubt that he’d allow it.”

“Who knows? Who does the palace belong to? Who is the boss?” Akechi pressed.

“Ah, Kurusu-san. He’s been convicted of violent outbursts and his own self hate and how he’s been treated by people and society. Everyone wished him to be locked up or gone, so he’s doing so.” The shadow shifted. His earpiece then buzzed and he glanced at Akechi. “I’ve been requested to tell you to leave. Visiting hours are closed.”

Akechi offered a small smile and slowly backed away. The name Kurusu sounded familiar to him, like he had known the name at one point. But the cognition of the boy must had made the shadows more approachable and kind. They could be reflections of some of the people who are dealing with his case, and he’s afraid to see how the more inner shadows are like.

Akechi decides to leave the palace and go investigate.

\--

Akechi sat in the small cafe that he had found, named Leblanc, sipping coffee as he watched the young man behind the counter talk idly to a patron.

Akechi had been going here for almost a year, and the boy behind the counter was some new part timer that he had recognized to be named Akira. He lived above the cafe and was on parole due to some incident that happened in the boy’s home town. From what Akechi could tell, the boy wasn’t that bad and was rather kind actually. Whatever happened was either blown out of proportion, lied about, or was a huge deal. Akira was rather quiet from his observations and was rather kind.

“Would you like more coffee?” Akira’s voice snapped Akechi out of his trance.

“Oh, yes. Thank you.” Akechi smiled and held out his cup. Akira poured more coffee into the cup before starting to turn away. Akechi reached a hand out before he could though. “Ah, Akira-san, before you go.”

“Yes?” Akira looked down at him, slight interest in his eyes. 

“Can I ask you a few questions? I noticed you watch a lot of TV and news. Especially when the Phantom Thieves are on. I have something tomorrow and I wanted a higher schooler’s opinion on something.” Akechi motioned towards the seat on the other side of the booth’s table. He had a TV interview tomorrow and some important people were going to be there, and he wants to have a student’s opinion on the topic.

“Sure.” Akira sat across of him. “What do you want to know?” 

Akechi spread out some of his papers and picked one up, putting it on the top of the stack and read over a few questions. He could see the cafe’s cat come up and jump into Akira’s lap.

“Would you call the Phantom Thieves’ work justice, even if its done incorrectly?” Akechi asked.

“Justice is justice.” Akira shrugged and pushed his glasses up more. “We don’t know what they’re doing to make them confess. All we see is a card and a declaration, then a confession. We do not know their ways, thus we cannot determine whether they’re true justice or harmful justice.”

Akechi nodded and hummed. “Would you say you’re a follower of the Phantom Thieves?”

“Yes. They give us hope that one day we can all break out of our personal prison and not be harmed by the adults that deserve to be punished.” Akira had just shrugged and he pet the cat in his lap nonchalantly.

Akechi felt slightly taken back by his response. He didn’t think Akira would give such a fueled response. Akira seemed like someone who wouldn’t care much about these trivial things.

“So you want to be able to break free of whoever has you chained down?” Akechi tilted his head.

Akechi had spent a month talking idly to Akira, and other than small pokes at each other, maybe some flirty comments, he hadn’t made it this far. It was actually rather nice to hear about his opinions other than the one interview that Akira had witnessed.

“Of course. We all have something that we want to happen. Sometimes we just need help.” Akira shrugged again.

Akechi thought for a second as he processed this new information. Akechi slowly started to piece together who the Phantom Thieves were, and he just hadn’t found out their leader and one of their main supports, but he felt like he had suddenly found the leader. Akira just showed a small glimpse of who he truly was and he needed that.

Akira was most likely a Phantom Thief. He was friends with the others, and he was fierce enough. Damned by adults enough. He has been chasing them for months and he had finally caught them as Haru Okumura had joined them. He had been worked to the bone, trying to figure them out and work on his assignments. He hadn’t even been able to check up on the rogue prison palace lately.

“I’m sure that one day, we can free you from whatever is holding you back.”


End file.
